Seize the Moment – Day 405
Honesty is the Best Policy!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, April 26.
Honesty is the best policy!
I think it is safe to say that at some point in all of our lives, we have been in situations where we felt it would easier, if not better, to give a half-truth or an outright lie, than it was to be truthful.
Whether or not this moral dilemma has happened to you more than one time I don’t know, but I do know that the great patriarch of our faith, Father Abraham, was in that situation over and over again in his life. According to Genesis 20:13, Abraham asked Sarah to consistently lie by giving a half-truth about their relationship: “When God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is the kindness which you will show to me: everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”
Genesis 20 is the second time that Abraham’s policy of deception has caused a problem. Genesis 20:2-3 begins the story, “Abraham said of Sarah his wife, ‘She is my sister.’ So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, ‘Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.’”
There is much in this story that is alien to us because it happened thousands of years ago in an ancient culture with different cultural values and social norms, but what can we learn from it and apply to our lives today?
Honesty is the best policy! Don’t make situations more complicated than they need to be. Bring light to the darkness and walk in the truth, trusting God every step of the way!
Seize the moment and speak the truth in love; be gentle and walk in the light of God’s love as you live in the Way of Jesus through your daily life.